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What are the influences that govern how people view their worlds? What are the embedded values and practices that underpin the ways people think and act? Discourses We Live By approaches these questions through narrative research, in a process that uses words, images, activities or artefacts to ask people - either individually or collectively within social groupings - to examine, discuss, portray or otherwise make public their place in the world, their sense of belonging to (and identity within) the physical and cultural space they inhabit. This book is a rich and multifaceted collection of twenty-eight chapters that use varied lenses to examine the discourses that shape people’s lives. The contributors are themselves from many backgrounds - different academic disciplines within the humanities and social sciences, diverse professional practices and a range of countries and cultures. They represent a broad spectrum of age, status and outlook, and variously apply their research methods - but share a common interest in people, their lives, thoughts and actions. Gathering such eclectic experiences as those of student-teachers in Kenya, a released prisoner in Denmark, academics in Colombia, a group of migrants learning English, and gambling addiction support-workers in Italy, alongside more mainstream educational themes, the book presents a fascinating array of insights. Discourses We Live By will be essential reaoing for adult educators and practitioners, those involved with educational and professional practice, narrative researchers, and many sociologists. It will appeal to all who want to know how narratives shape the way we live and the way we talk about our lives. As with all Open Book publications, this entire book is available to read for free on the publisher’s website. Printed and digital editions, together with supplementary digital material, can also be found at www.openbookpublishers.com

Miguel Alberto González González reports on a narrative study of adult educators in Colombia that seeks their views of the dichotomies of inclusion/exclusion and diversity/homogeneity within their society and presents the evidence within a thematic analysis of key factors. The choice of subject and the commentary itself reveal the researcher’s desire to take an emancipatory stance.

This work aims at contributing to the debate on the human psychic reflexive process as well as on the role that narrative devices can play to foster it. We present a reflexive process model and draw a distinction between reflection and reflexivity. Specifically, we discuss the role of narrative modes and media in promoting reflection, and the role of a narrative group in promoting reflexivity. We assume that whereas human reflexivity is always characterized by a relational dimension, in order to reflect, a relationship is always necessary. Finally, we present a novel formative method based on a qualitative multimodal approach including a narrative group and various narrative modes and media. This narrative method, that we named Narrative Mediation Path (NMP), has been devised and tested in INSTALL1 Project and it addresses to underachieving university students lagging behind in their studies.